SCHOLARSHIPS
Encourage your students to look for and apply to scholarships early. They should create a FastWeb account and check in with their Program Director for local scholarships. Due dates vary by scholarship and occur all throughout senior year.
The Mentor's Role in Scholarship Applications
Motivation
Managing the workload of the applications
Finding scholarships
- Help them realize they are going to need it - that their financial aid will not cover all of their college expenses. See College Finance Basics for more.
- Help them understand how the work they put into the application process will pay off for them. For example, if they spend two hours filling out a scholarship application for which they receive a $500 scholarship, that's a $250 per hour wage.
- If your students are worried that their GPA isn't high enough to realistically expect to receive a scholarship, remind them that the applicant's entire package is considered, and a great essay can count more than GPA.
Managing the workload of the applications
- Writing an essay for each scholarship application can seem like a daunting task. Make sure they realize that, once they have one good essay (PIQs), they can reuse the essay over and over -- sometimes with minor tweaking and sometimes as is.
- Brainstorm ideas for essays together.
- Review their essay and help them polish it.
- Look at an application together while you are meeting. Get them going by filling out one application together.
Finding scholarships
- Encourage students to talk to their Program Director about local and current scholarships that are open.
- Top tier students may wish to explore national, more competitive scholarships.